Inside the Mind of a Commercial Agent Part I: Mark Measures

If you are pursuing a career in entertainment landing an agent can be daunting. However, landing one of the top commercial agents in the business takes skills and fortitude. Mark Measures serves as the head of the commercial department at Abrams Artists. Measures is one of the top commercial agents in the country. Abrams Artists is well-known and respected as a premier talent agency with a reputation of building careers. Since 1977, Abrams Artists has been one of the US top talent and literary agencies, founded by President and CEO, Harry Abrams.

Mark has been a commercial agent for 25 years. Many people were curious to find out what his day was like and wondered if he was jetting around on G-V’s and hobnobbing with stars at The Four Seasons. I posed this question to Mark and he thought it was ridiculous. Mark shared that he comes in, does his breakdowns, meets actors for representation and he does contracts. Measures stated, “I do the same thing that any agent is doing on a daily basis.” By all accounts, his day is pretty normal.

Mark is a wealth of information to anyone in this business and he’s very active on social media. You can learn as much about this industry and honing your craft from Mark’s tweets. That’s why he has a growing Twitter following. If you’re looking to someday be represented by a top commercial agent find out from Mark what he and his colleagues look for when they are interested in representing talent in this two-part interview.

Mark’s Background and Where He Gets His Wicked Sense of Humor
I started as a technical theater major in college. I went on the road as a touring production and stage manager for many years. I got tired of waiting for other people to work before I could work. I had a friend who was a personal manager at the time and she knew two ladies that owned an agency. They said do you want to go work and temp there, while some people were out? I did and I took to it and I liked it. I went back out on the road for a couple of weeks with The Judd’s. I got a call saying so and so just quit, do you want to come and work full-time? So I did.

My wit comes from where I think a lot of people’s wit comes from, which is a sense of survival instincts when I was younger. If I could be funnier than the other people then I’d deflect whatever trouble might be coming my way. It was my unique look on life and my take. I’m not sure anybody can say where their sense of humor comes from or where their wit comes from. I do believe that there is a lot of humor in the truth. I think it is a lot easier to take the truth if it is couched in a little bit of humor.

Blind Submissions to Abrams Artists That Are Not Referrals
Yes, of course we accept blind submissions. It’s a category that we don’t have and or that we need. Recently, I got a blind submission from a kid that was diverse. Diversity is exploding. I looked at it and he had 3 jobs on the air. He was a young Black kid with funky hair and I passed it around to the other agents and they said let’s get him in here right away. We called him in and we signed him. The blind submission was an example of a category that we were a little bit light on and one where somebody was working. Having jobs certainly helps.

What Really Matters When Meeting with Abrams Artists
Ultimately, it’s about your personality and that’s what has to come through and you have to be you. I say that because commercials are not about reading the words it’s about your personality. If I give the words to a 1,000 people they will all read the words right. It’s the one that brings their own personality to it that gets the job. If I don’t ask for your headshot that’s probably a good meeting. Because we’ve been so busy talking and chatting and communicating back and forth that I didn’t need the crutch of looking at your headshot and resume and asking you boring questions about what’s on your resume or what’s on your headshot. I do that when the conversation comes to a stop and I’ve got nothing else to do and I’ll say do you have a picture with you? So they will give me their picture and I’ll look at their picture and we’ll talk about the picture and the resume and what’s on it. In our group meetings when you meet all of the agents here we’ll spend 75% of the time talking to each other and you’ve got to find a way to get in on the conversation and become a part of the meeting. We’re not going to sit there and ask questions like how did you get to L.A. from Kansas City and when did you get here? Those types of things don’t help us figure out whether or not you’re going to work commercially or not. I want to see your personality!


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